Organizational Attractiveness
Attracting and maintaining qualified talents has been the priority issue of organizations (Rynes & Barber, 1990). Attracting high-quality employees can help organizations efficiently increase their competitiveness (Cable & Turban, 2001).
Scholars defined organizational attractiveness as the degree of applicant attraction toward the certain organization (Turban & Greening, 1997). Aiman-Smith et al. (2001) defined organizational attraction as “an attitude or expressed general positive affect toward an organization” (p. 221), whether job seekers consider the organization as a favorable place to work. In a recent study, it was defined as “an individual’s attitude toward an organization as an employer” (Van Hoye & Saks, 2011, P. 314). Beside applicants’ general attraction to the organization, a recent study concluded that the component of organizational attractiveness should also include perceived prestige (e.g., Turban et al., 1998; Turban & Greening, 1997) and intention to pursuit employment of the organization (Highhouse, Lievens, & Sinar, 2003).
General prestige of the organization reflects “a social consensus on the degree to which the company’s characteristics are regarded as either positive or negative” (Highhouse, Lievens, &
Sinar, 2003, p. 989).
The conception of organizational attractiveness has been broadly researched in different fields. For instance, it has been studied in the field of management (e.g., Gatewood et al. 1993), applied psychology (e.g., Collins & Stevens 2002), vocational behavior, and communication (Berthon, Ewing & Hah, 2005) and marketing (e.g., Ewing, Pitt, de Bussy, & Berthon, 2002).
Existence literature showed various factors which were the predictors of organizational attractiveness, such as recruiting, messages, recruitment timing, recruiter behaviors, characteristics of recruiters, applicants’ perceptions of fit and organizational image (Barber,
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1998; Breaugh & Starke, 2000; Chapman et al., 2005; Rynes & Barber, 1990; Turban, 2001;
Turban & Greening, 1997). For instance, characteristics and behaviors of recruiters may serve as signals to predict applicant attraction to the given position. (Rynes et al., 1991). Moreover, scholars indicated that some factors appeared to be the most essential predictors of organizational attractiveness, such as recruiter behaviors, procedural justice perceptions, hiring expectations, perceived person-environment fit, and organization and job attributes (Chapman et al., 2005).
Other study showed that social performance of an organization which reflected working conditions would positively relate to job seekers’ perceived attraction (Turban & Greening, 1997). Besides, results of Turban’s (2001) recent study indicated that recruitment activities, organizational familiarity and social context also have impacts on applicant attraction. Also, different stakeholders would have different perceptions toward organizational attractiveness (Lievens, Van Hoye, & Anseel, 2007).
Beside the relationships between variables, scholars proposed three strategies to enhance organizational attractiveness from organizational perspective. Organizations can enhance applicant attraction by paying attention to dimensions of recruitment practices, improving the nature of the inducements offered, and shifting recruitment efforts to individuals who were thought to be less marketable by competitors (Rynes & Barber, 1990).
Organization Brand
Kotler (1979) defined “brand” as a component of a name, term, sign, symbol, design, or either combination of them. It helps an organization to be identified by consumers and also to be differentiated from other competitors. Scholars suggested two dimensions of organization brand: organizational familiarity (e.g., brand recall and brand recognition) and organizational image (e.g., types of brand associations and favorability of brand associations) (Keller, 1993;
Allen et al., 2007).
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The conception of organization brand has been well studied in various fields. For instance, in the field of vocational choice research, results showed that job seekers’ impressions of organization brand would affect their preferences of employer. (Super, 1953; Tom, 1971;
Dowling, 1986). In addition, scholars suggested that stakeholders belonged to different groups may possessed different images toward the same organization (Dowling, 1994)
In marketing literature, Keller (1993) introduced the idea of customer-based brand equity.
It is defined as the differential effect of brand knowledge on consumer response to the marketing of the brand. Consumers’ decision can be changed by increasing their desire to buy the certain product, adding positive value to the branded product, and differentiating the product from others (Aaker, 1996; Collins & Stevens, 2002; Keller, 1993).
In generalizing from the theory of customer-based brand equity, Cable and Turban (2001) applied this marketing concept to the research of recruitment field. They developed the idea about “employer knowledge” which refers to a job seeker’s belief and feeling about an organization. In addition, as later researchers confirmed in the research, Cable and Turban (2001) had extended the idea to “brand equity theory”. It is an important idea in recruitment field, because the theory suggests that organizational branding may help us understand how organizational attractiveness is affected by organizational reputation (Allen et al., 2007).
Research also showed that organizational branding adds more value to their products or services than characteristics of the products or services possess (Allen et al., 2007; Keller, 1993).
Based on brand equity theory, later researchers concluded two dimensions of organization brand: organizational familiarity (e.g., organizational recognition and recall) and organizational image (Collins & Stevens, 2002; Keller, 1993; Allen et al., 2007). This study derives this idea and the content of each dimension is discussed below.
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Organizational Familiarity
Organizational familiarity was defined as the levels of ease a brand name comes to mind performed by consumers (Keller, 1993). In the recruitment context, Cable and Turban (2001) defined organizational familiarity as “the level of awareness that a job seeker has of an organization” (p.124). Marketing scholars have noted that organizational familiarity (also called organizational awareness) is a fundamental and undervalued dimension of brand knowledge (Aaker, 1996; Keller, 1993). It may strongly affect one’s perception and attitude. In Aaker’s (1996) interesting and vivid depiction, the researcher stated: it “can make peanut butter taste better and instill confidence in a retailer” (Aaker, 1996, p.114). It is also an important element in delivering information and affecting consumer’s brand choice (Cable & Turban, 2001). According to Aaker (1996), there are levels of organizational familiarity, reflecting different levels of intensity that consumers possess a brand in mind, from “recognition” to
“brand opinion".
In recruitment literature, the theoretical model of recruitment equity proposed that organizational familiarity is also the important fundamental of job seekers’ organization-related knowledge (Cable & Turban, 2001). Drew upon the concept above, organizational familiarity also plays an important role in affecting job seeker’s decision.
Organizational familiarity is antecedent to organizational image (Cable & Turban, 2001).
That is to say, job seeker will not go to the stage of organizational image before they have the fundamental idea of organizational awareness. Adapted from Aaker’s (1991) statement, scholars (Cable & Turban, 2001) suggested that organizational awareness:
(1) serves as an anchor to which other associations can be attached, (2) leads to liking because people like the familiar, and (3) can serve as a signal of substance based on the logic that people assume there is a reason why a company name is familiar. (p.125)
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Organizational Image
In early literature, Tom (1971) defined organizational image as “the way the organization is perceived by individuals” (p.576). Marketing scholars suggested that organizational image refers to “people’s perceptions, attributes, and associations connected with the brand in their memories” (e.g., Aaker, 1996; Biel, 1992; Cable & Turban, 2001, p.125). Researchers (Dutton, Dukerich & Harquail, 1994) suggested that organizational image referred to one’s belief about what is distinctive, central, and enduring about the organization. It was also defined as
“information about the meaning of the brand for consumers” (Cable & Turban, 2001, p.125).
Beside customers’ perspective, researchers suggested that “the brand equity concept can be generalized to recruitment contexts in which job seekers confront issues similar to those faced by consumers” (Cable & Turban, 2001; Collins & Stevens, 2002, p.1122). As consumers’
believes to some products and services, job seekers establish their own believes about organizations. Barber (1998) suggested that this kind of believes serves as the basis for their employment intention (Collins & Stevens, 2002).
Based on the literature, there are two important dimension of image: first, the general attitudes and reactions toward a brand. Second, the specific features of the brand in consumers’
perspective and believes which influence purchase behavior (Collin & Stevens, 2002; Keller, 1993).
In terms of associated predictable outcomes of organizational image, based on the vocational choice theory, scholars suggested that individual’s job choice is one way to reflect self-image, so the preference of employee is thought to be associated with organizational image (Super, 1953; Tom, 1971). In addition, researchers proved that image is the essential part in affecting applicant attraction (Chapman et al., 2005).
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Organization Brand and Organizational Attractiveness
Scholars suggested that organization brand has two dimensions: organizational awareness and organizational image. In recruitment literature, it is suggested that organizational awareness is the basic stage that happened before organizational image. In addition, the recruitment equity theory proposed by Cable and Turban (2001) indicates that organizational awareness is the fundamental element in affecting job seeker’s attraction to the organization.
Adapted from marketing literature, scholars suggested that organizational awareness is like an anchor to attach other associations, resulting in attraction to a certain brand, and serves as a signal that leads to positive organizational image (Aaker, 1991; Cable & Turban, 2001). In extension, Cable and Turban (2001) proposed that it was the same process to attract applicant through this mechanism. It would serve as the signals leading to positive impressions and finally result in applicant attraction.
Moreover, there are other theories that help to explain the positive link between organization brand and organizational attractiveness. Theory of customer-based brand equity suggested that “high levels of organizational familiarity and a positive organizational image should increase the probability of brand choice, as well as produce greater consumer (and retailer) loyalty and decrease vulnerability to competitive marketing actions” (Keller, 1993, p.
8). In other words, customers would be more attracted to the organization which they have more favorable organizational image with. Similarly, job seekers would also have higher applicant attractions to the organizations that they are more favored with (Allen et al., 2007).
Signaling theory also suggested the link between organizational image and attraction to organization. First, scholars argued that organizational image was significant in recruitment because it would provide signals about its employee to the society (Dutton et al., 1994). Based on signaling theory, individuals would use such available information as signals to generate other organization attributes. Therefore, if job seekers perceived the organization with
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favorable image, they would have more generally positive impressions of the organization and would be more likely to pursue employment. Another argument is that if one perceives organizational image as attractive or positive, it can serve as the signals in reinforcing one’s self-identity. The similarity between organizational image and self-identity would help to increase attraction to organization (Dutton et al., 1994).
Based on the social identity theory, people tend to join the organization with attractiveness and popularity because it would help to increase one’s self-image. (Cable & Turban, 2003). In consistent with this idea, Dutton et al., (1994) suggested that “organizational membership can confer positive attributes on its members, and people may feel proud to belong to an organization that is believed to have socially valued characteristics” (p.240). Moreover,
“organizational images begin to presocialize job seekers in terms of what to expect from the company and what would be expected of them if they joined the company as employees”
(Cable & Yu, 2006, P.828). The existent theories indicated the positive relationship between organization brand and organizational attractiveness. Therefore, the first hypothesis is proposed as follows.
Hypothesis 1. Job seeker’s perception of organization brand can positively predict organizational attractiveness.
Website Content: Job and Organization Information
In the early stage of recruitment process, websites appear to be the most possible device to access and interact with potential applicants (Allen et al., 2007). The early stage of recruitment is the message exchange process between organization and job seekers. (Allen et al., 2004) In organization’s perspective, one of the purposes is to communicate the job (e.g., job openings, job attributes) and organization information (e.g. organization culture) to the potential applicants. For instance, the message about the internal employee endorsement may be provided to give job seekers the clue about the organization attributes and what kind of
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people are fit with the organization (Cober, Brown, & Levy, 2004). For job seekers, it is a process of using the extent information to decrease the uncertainty and making relevant application decisions. (Allen et al., 2007). Based on the extent literature above, website content plays an important role in web-based recruitment.
Scholars indicated that information of job and organization attributes would positively predict applicant attraction and pursuit intention (Allen et al., 2004; Barber, 1998; Rynes et al., 1991). More information provided helps potential applicant to know more about the organization (Allen et al., 2007). Further, Cober et al. (2004) suggested that:
Organizations have a greater opportunity to brand their job opportunities with content that matters to job seekers, such as the work environment, training opportunities, and type of people a potential applicant would be working with if he or she pursued a job with the employer. (p.203)
A recent meta-analysis proved that job and organization attributes to be the most significant factors to predict applicant attraction (Chapman et al., 2005). One related theory has been realistic job previews (RJPs). In Wanous’s study in 1973, he proved that an RJP received from recruiters would increase employees’ job satisfaction (Breaugh & Starke, 2000). Further, in the review of Breaugh and Starke (2000), they concluded that RJP model shows that:
providing realistic information to job candidates should have beneficial effects for a number of reasons (e.g., RJPs allow candidates to self-select out of consideration for jobs that would not meet their expectations, RJPs cause individuals to be more committed to their job acceptance decision). (p. 426)
After reviewing the extent literature, Breaugh and Starke (2000) concluded that realistic job preview was a crucial instrument in recruitment. In addition, they believed that it is important to focus more on “the process of providing accurate job information at several points during the recruitment process” (p. 429). For instance, the realistic information about job
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information in job postings. If recruiters offer this kind of information, it would “increase the amount of information conveyed during the initial interview by selecting recruiters who are likely to really understand the job situation” (p. 429). It would be beneficial to both sides in the recruitment process.
The other related theory is called “signaling theory”. The idea of this theory is that people tend to get available information as signals to generate more inferences about the unknown area. Therefore, “recruitment messages and materials that provide more information about job and organization characteristics should positively influence applicant attraction to the organization. More information provides stronger signaling to job seekers, reducing their uncertainty and aiding in the development” (Allen et al., 2007, p. 1698). Thus, more information provided on the website would strongly predict job seeker’s attraction to organization (Allen et al., 2007).
Effect of Website Content on the Relationship between Organization Brand and Organizational Attractiveness
According to the findings from early researches, the early stage of recruitment is a communication process between organization and potential applicants (Allen et al., 2007).
Website is the most common way to access job seekers in this stage (Allen et al., 2007). The information provided by recruiters help the organization to attract and persuade the job seekers to apply. In this study, the researchers focus on the amount of job and organization information provided on the website. A recent meta-analysis indicated that job and organization attributes served as strong predictors of organizational attractiveness (Chapman et al., 2005). Further, the results of previous research indicated that these two types of information serve as crucial determinant of organizational attractiveness (Rynes, 1991). Objective factor theory also suggests that job seekers tend to make their job choice on the basis of their evaluation about the job or vacancy characteristics (Behling, Labovitz, & Gainer, 1968). Moreover, scholars
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suggested that job seekers would have higher applicant attractions to the organizations which they can get more amount of job and organization information. (Barber & Roehling, 1993).
In this study, the researchers proposed job seeker’s attitude will be moderated by the
“website content” which refers to the amount of job and organization information. In addition, the degree of organizational attractiveness will be influenced after examining website contents.
Signaling theory is the fundamental to explain this psychological process. In early stage of recruitment, job seekers only have general conceptions or impressions instead of sufficient knowledge about the organization. In this stage, websites serve as a convenient and efficient platform to communicate messages to job seekers. Signaling theory suggested that the messages would become signals to influence job seekers’ perceptions to the organization (Braddy et al., 2008; Turban, 2001).
Base on the literature, it is proposed that website content with sufficient job and organization information will strengthen the relationship between organization brand and organizational attractiveness. In addition, it is proposed that job seekers’ degree of applicant attractions will increase after they examine the websites with sufficient job and organization information. For instance, if a well-known organization whose website provides relevant information, job seekers attraction to the organization will become stronger. On the other hand, the failure to provide relevant information will become signals of the lack of interest toward potential applicants (Barber & Roehling, 1993). For instance, if an originally reputable organization does not care about their website and fails to provide sufficient information which job seeker’s need on the website, the potential applicants are likely to take it as signals and generate negative impressions of this organization. They will assume that “like its website, the organization is disorganized or that the entire recruitment process will be too cumbersome to complete” (Braddy et al., 2008, p. 2993). In sum, if a well-known organization brand with poor content in the website, job seekers’ attraction to that organization will decrease after they
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examine the website. Based on the logic, the second and third hypothesis is proposed:
Hypothesis 2. There is a significant difference between pretest and posttest of
organizational attractiveness after job seekers examine the website contents.
Hypothesis 3. Website content have a positive moderating effect on the relationship between job seeker’s perception of organization brand and organizational attractiveness.
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